Wrestling By The Numbers: Booker T

World Wrestling Entertainment has announced the newest inductee joining the 2013 WWE Hall Of Fame Class will be current Smackdown General Manager Robert ‘Booker T.’ Huffman Jr.. The 48-year-old Houston Texas native is one of the most decorated in-ring performers in history having won 35-major championships while competing in World Wrestling Entertainment, Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling and TNA Wrestling. He was the most decorated wrestler in WCW history having won 21-titles with the organization. He is a former 5-Time WCW Champion and 1-Time WWE World Champion. Along with his brother Lane Huffman the duo was known as Harlem Heat and became one of the top tier tag-teams of the 1990’s. Huffman is a 24-year veteran in the professional wrestling industry having just retired from a full-time in-ring schedule last year. He originally made his debut back in 1989 after having been trained by Ivan Putski and Scott Casey.

Robert Huffman’s first professional match was while competing for Ivan Putski’s Western Wrestling Alliance. After teaming with his real life brother Lane Huffman and working on the Texas independent circuit, the duo were signed by the Global Wrestling Federation and spent the next 14-months splitting time between the GWF and the Network Of Wrestling organization in Japan. World Championship Wrestling signed both brothers in early 1993 and the tag-team became known as Harlem Heat. After competing in WCW for 5-years and becoming one of the top tag-teams in company history, Booker T. started competing as a singles competitor in 1997. In the year 2000 when WCW’s management was in disarray, he became one of the top talents in the organization and main evented until the company was sold to the WWE in 2001.

World Wrestling Entertainment took over Booker T.’s contract and brought him in as the WCW World Champion during the WCW/ECW invasion storyline as apart of the WWE’s purchase of the two organizations. Booker T. is the only wrestler in history to defend the WCW Championship in the main event of a WWE pay-per-view. Booker T. spent the next 6-years in the WWE and had huge main event success using his King Booker persona alongside Queen Sharmell. After disputing violations against the WWE’s Wellness Policy he and Sharmell were granted releases from the WWE in October of 2007.

TNA Wrestling signed both Booker T. and Sharmell in November of 2007 and the duo spent 2-years with the organization. They first feuded with Bobby Roode and later joined Sting, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner in a group known as The Main Event Mafia. After leaving TNA Booker T. worked in both Mexico and Puerto Rico before returning to the WWE in the 2011 Royal Rumble match and shortly after becoming a commentator on Smackdown. Since returning to the WWE Booker T. has occasionally returned to the ring and has been the on-air General Manager of Smackdown since July of last year. Robert ‘Booker T.’ Huffman Jr. joins Mick Foley, Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Trish Stratus and Donald Trump as inductees in the 2013 WWE Hall Of Fame Class.

Below we look at the career of Robert ‘Booker T.’ Huffman Jr. by the numbers…